blonde poker forum

Choose any year from your past.

1988.

Wednesday morning waiting for the bloke from the Auto Trader to come and photograph whatever cars/vans/lorries you had for sale.

Eventually he would roll up with his notepad and his Poloroid camera and take a single photograph of your vehicle/vehicles. (If it turned out crap, tough). Then he would write your spiel into his notepad, staple your pic to it, relieve you of fifteen quid and sprint for his car and squeal off to his next appointment. He had about a million people to visit on a Wednesday.

With luck, your ad would appear in the AT the next day.

With the day too long in the tooth to head out on the hunt for more stock it was off to the Longshoot for a businessman's lunch and to knock the table for a came of crash (13 card bragg) with the other motor traders.

Crash could be a lucrative or an expensive game back then, £1 a point, £5 for a crash, and double everything of you crashed into the hole.

Then on Wednesday night it was off to Naps casino until 4am when the Auto Trader hit the platform at Sheffield railway station. 30 mins later you were on the phone to some poor bugger who had advertised a Ford Sierra that sounded cheap.

"Who is this? Ford what? do you know what time it is?"

If someone had told us back then we would be able to take our own photographs (as many as we like) on our phone, write our own adverts and publish them ourselves, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we would have thought they were mad.



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You could work on your own cars too back in the day. 40 years today since I passed my driving test. 1st time obv.  ;first;

Hi Tom,
I was only talking to someone the other day about the autotrader, and the man that would come and do the ads. 'Pete' was my man, as you say always in a rush. Sometimes the phone number would be left off the ad, or ad not printed at all, would be fuming then , as obvs had to wait another week just to get the ad in  ;grr;
Also you were limited to words in the ad, so had to pick the bullshit carefully  :D

1988!

I'd just got my first snooker cue :)

Did you change it Mark, if so what prompted you?

It was probably a good move because most players stick to the same cue even if it's terrible.

I had a few through the years. 1 pieces until I was about 14, and then I bought a Cuecraft Monarch.

Knew the boss, so got it on interest free credit, and had to brush & iron the tables every Saturday to knock a tenner off the balance :)

1988 was an important year for me, i left my job and became self employed  :)

Important year for me too. I got married :)

Turned two which is big boy shizzle. No turning back from there...

1969.

Second Thursday of the month.

Up before dawn, I splash some cold water on my face and climb shivering into the back of our Austin LD van. My dad usually drove a lorry but today was a 'holiday' so we took the van, which served as our car.

After a couple of miles we stop at a roadside camp to pick up my dad's friend Izzy and his son Perry. Izzy sits beside my dad in the cab and Perry gets in the back with me. Our next stop will be Mansfield livestock auction.

We park amongst the Land Rovers, horseboxes, pig trailers and cattle trucks. Perry and I tumble out of the van and run through the big iron gates which today are standing open.

Dozens of heifers stand steaming in their metal pens and their sandpaper tongues tug at the skin on our arms as we reach between the buds of their horns to scratch their wooly heads.

Next are the pigs, solid, fat, bristley pink 4 month old pokers with nothing to do all day but eat until they become bacon.

Lambs, then goats, then our favourite section, the crates and boxes. You never knew what you would find in these. Pigeons, geese, chickens, rabbits, ferrets and, most exciting of all, puppies.

The puppies were held up one at a time by the auctioneers assistant and sold for prices like 4/9d, 7/6d or maybe even half a guinea for a good un.

Outside, at the back of the auction ring were the stalls where the horses were kept. One day Perry and I were admiring a young entire (not gelded) Suffolk Punch. What a specimen he was, 15 cwt of writhing muscle and sinew clattering around the cobbles on hooves as big as manhole covers. Further on, we stumbled on a tiny filly who was obviously 'ossin her brains out,(bang in season, ready for mating) .

We thought it would be amusing to move her to the stall next to the Suffolk Punch. Chris almighty, when he got wind of her he went bat shit crazy and almost demolished the entire auction house. Scared the bejesus out of us he did.

We catch up with my dad and Izzy and they take us to a shop where we buy a loaf of fresh uncut bread and a big wedge of cheese. My dad cuts both of these into 4 rough portions with his pocket knife, we eat and wash it down with a mug of tea bought from a big woman in a small hut. (The tea is a special treat, I have about six sugars I mine)

Happy days.

Great memories.

I love it, happy memories are nearly always an awesome read.

Awesome writing, Tom.

Major year for me as Wimbledon won the FA Cup :)

Important year for me too, as I turned 21 that year.

He means 1988.

Thats great Tom, feel like i could be there. I'm shit at trying to get things across in the written word.

Thanks Ade.

Writing about the Austin LD stirred a memory that had me laughing all day.

The LD was a popular van back in the day, as I said we had one, and my granddad Dennis had one.

My granddad Dennis could drive but didn't. He did his best work after a few lunchtime liveners so he used to let my Uncle David do the driving while he did the talking.

The LD van had sliding doors, they were really heavy but beautifully engineered and they slid along on their runners with the gentlest push.

On a hot day, my granddad would slide the door back to catch the breeze whilst they were travelling, then he would settle back in his seat to enjoy the ride. At some point, almost without fail, he would brace his winklepicker-clad foot on the door jamb. When he did my Uncle David would brake a little heavier than strictly necessary and the door would slam shut like a gin trap on my granddad's foot. It didn't damage my granddad too much, but it did smart a bit and by God it made him swear. He was a past-master at swearing, sometimes he could go for several minutes without repeating himself or drawing breath.

My Uncle David would feign innocence and eventually my granddad would calm down and settle back into his seat again. Sooner or later, his foot would make it's way back into the door jamb.

The best part was the anticipation. My Uncle David would catch my eye and gently nod toward the foot and I would have to stuff my jumper into my mouth so that I didn't give the game away. Then, at the next junction the brakes would be applied a little enthusiastically, the winklepicker-foot would become a little more misshapen and the air would turn blue once again.

50 years on, I still laugh about it.



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Haha, love it

Brilliant

 ;D ;D ;D

1988 - The Summer Of Love

Thank god there was no mobile phones/social media then..

I remember listing some of the following as major selling points.

Some cars had one or two of these features, some had none, top of the range models would have most if not all.

Central locking.
Immobiliser/alarm
Cloth seats.
Vinyl roof/sunroof.
Electric Windows.
Heated rear screen.
Headrests.
Metallic paint.
Colour-coded bumpers.
5 speed gearbox.
Radio cassette player.

And dont forget the best one of all.........PAS  :)

Bloody Hell Ade, I can't believe I forgot that. It was always first on my list.

Best selling point

Fantastic writing.  Can picture it all.  Great stuff!